ATP-Funded Green Process Technologies - NIST Advanced ...

• Technical completion of ATP-funded project
• Progress toward commercialization
• Expected green benefits including reduction of harmful emissions, increased energy
efficiency, reduced petroleum use, and increased recycling of industrial raw
materials
• Availability of some retrospective benefits (realized to date) to increase confidence
in the ongoing commercialization of innovative technologies and the cash flow
estimates for future benefits
IDENTIFICATION OF BENEFITS
This section discusses the logic model of green process technology benefits, the
counterfactual scenario of likely outcomes without ATP investments, the distinction
between public and private benefits, and the attribution of benefits to ATP and other
public agencies.
Logic Model of Green Process Technology Benefits
A logic model postulates the flow of benefits from ATP investments to key technical
advances or outputs, to green outcomes, and finally to ultimate benefits or impacts
for downstream industry, end users, and society (Figure 1).
On the left side of Figure 1, ATP investments are inputs whose impacts are to be
determined. Also on the left side of Figure 1 are secondary inputs (other public
investments), which need to be identified to make fair attribution of public benefits
to ATP and to other sources of public funding.
In the center of Figure 1, green outcomes from the commercialization of ATP-funded
process technologies are enumerated. Important as these outcomes are, they are not
the ultimate benefits. Instead, outcomes represent innovation results that can, in turn,
be instrumental toward achieving economic and societal benefits or impacts (the right
side of Figure 1). Expected impacts include the following:
• Immediate cost savings to be realized at the same time as increments of energy
conservation, reduced petroleum use, additional recycling, and reduced harmful
emissions are being realized
• Reduced import reliance and reduced price volatility, which also tends to promote
immediate cost savings and industrial competitiveness
• Beneficial health impacts and climate change impacts that have incontrovertible
intrinsic value and can be confidently associated with unspecified but highly
probable and substantial long-term avoided costs
8 ATP-FUNDED GREEN PROCESS TECHNOLOGIES